Travel Agent Who Bilked Clients Gets House Arrest

Former Travel Agent Sentenced

Woman To Serve House Arrest, Repay Some Money Owed

September 19, 1992|By SUZANNE SATALINE; Courant Staff Writer

Called a thief who betrayed the people who trusted her most, the owner of a New Britain travel agency was sentenced Friday to spend four months under house arrest and repay part of the $670,000 she bilked her New Britain clients of.

After chastising 50-year-old Zofia Sklepinski, Superior Court Judge Richard A. Damiani spared her a prison term for the four counts of first-degree larceny to which she pleaded no contest.

But he ordered the owner of the now-defunct Polonez Travel Agency on Broad Street to report to probation for the next five years. For four of those months, the ailing woman will be confined to her house and monitored with an electronic bracelet.

Instead of prison, Sklepinski will have to live with the dishonor of a community, Damiani said -- those in New Britain and those in Poland who eagerly awaited the much-needed money.

She claims she did not steal money entrusted to her for investments, plane tickets or aid to families in Poland.

"You're a thief. And what's worse, you stole from your own kind," Damiani told the travel agent, whose body shook as tears rolled down her face. "You betrayed family."

He ordered her to repay $395,000, to be divided among the victims who filed 221 complaints. She gave $75,000 to the court Friday, which the probation department and the victims must divy up.

She has said she has little money -- the money she gave Friday came from a settlement she received after being injured in an auto accident, Assistant State's Attorey Edward Narus said.

Her lawyer, Timothy Moynahan, said he did not know how she was going to make the payments. "She's going to endeavor to do it," he said. He would not comment further.

The sentence left a bitter impression of the American judicial system for some of Sklepinski's victims Several of them attended Friday's hearing and wanted her imprisoned. Most are Polish immigrants, some now American citizens, who trusted Sklepinski with their money. She persuaded them to invest their savings in her

business or use her as a courier to send money to their relatives back in Poland -- money that was never seen again.

"I can't express the extent that my mother suffered because of the actions of this woman," said Stephen Hondzinski, a New Britain lawyer who spoke in the Hartford courtroom in the absence of his 82-year-old mother. "She suffered when the beneficiaries in Poland didn't get their money -- being accused by them of stealing their money."

"I was working all my life, 20 years, for the money, and she has stolen my money, all my money" Wieslaw Werner, a 63-year-old machinist, told the court. "I'd like to know where she lost it. I need money. I'm waiting two years for this money."

The saddest part, said prosecutor Narus, is that Werner's is not even part of the 221 complaints filed. It is possible he never will see any money.

The finality of the criminal case will not affect the two civil cases pending against Sklepinski, Narus and another of her attorneys, Michael Broderick, said.

The travel business is gone and a judge has foreclosed on her Southington house. She must find a house by October to live up to the terms of the probation.

If she fails to pay the money, or misses her curfew, or violates any of the myriad other conditions of her probation, Damiani vowed to put her in prison for a decade. "God forbid you die in jail. You did that to yourself," he said.

But some of the victims said they believe that Sklepinski will come out ahead.

"She has the money stashed somewhere," said Heddy McDaniel, whose cousin lost money. "She's not stupid.